tried to finish this up last night, but got too wrapped up in the UVA College World Series baseball game...what a heartbreaker! Ah well, they had a great, historic season nonetheless...
thinking back yesterday, I figured out my Top 10 highlights of Bonnaroo '09 that I actually witnessed (as opposed to all the cool things I heard about later and missed)
in no particular order...
--being sidestage for Phish and Bruce Springsteen
--Springsteen doing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"
--Elvis Costello being joined by Jenny Lewis & band for "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love & Understanding"
--Snoop Dogg bringing out Erykah Badu for a cover of Slick Rick's "Lodi Dodi"
--artists including David Byrne (with bicycle), Wilco (the whole band) & Jenny Lewis walking right past me in the radio compound backstage area
--being sidestage for Band of Horses and introducing myself to Chicago radio legends Norm & Marty
--sitting in on a hilarious press conference with Tift Merritt, Alejandro Escovedo, Elvis Perkins, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
--the entire Africa Calling lineup on Friday at The Other Tent
--having fun being live on-air Sunday afternoon playing freshly recorded backstage songs
--seeing awesome stuff (The Features & Ted Leo just to name 2) up close either in the Troo Music Lounge (thanks to Elizabeth for capturing the Sons of Bill footage while I was on the air!) or Sonic Stage
more later...
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Bonnaroo Blog '09-5th entry
In the Corner Element, driving back to VA, Monday morning, going back through the memory banks for Friday wanderings/ramblings...(see my Bonnaroo videos here, by the way)
Tift Merritt started off the day in the lightly attended and very muddy This Tent. Nice to hear her rocking out a bit with the full band after her recent solo acoustic show at Music Resource Center in Charlottesville.
saw a few Gomez songs from the bleachers at the Which Stage. cool cover of Zeppelin's "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp"...they seemed to gear their setlist to their early set time, which meant slower, more meandering jammy stuff...maybe that was just the part of the show we saw.
wandered up to the "Africa Calling"-themed The Other Tent for Toubab Krewe, who added a touch of surf guitar to their eclectic, West African instrumental mix.
caught a little of Kaki King's set at This Tent. Quite a few more folks had gathered over there by this time, which was good to see for one of the best, most unique guitar players around today. And Bonnaroo is certainly a case in point - there are plenty of noodley guitar dudes; the world can certainly use more women who can absolutey shred too, right?
Over to the first-ever artist curated stage with Dirty Projectors playing to a very large crowd at That Tent. You can see why David Byrne loves them so much, and apparently he made a guest appearance later in their set, which we missed after tiring of too much of the lead singer's voice and not enough of his excellent female vocalist bandmates. Definitely a promising band, though, as heard on Brighten The Corners...still waiting to hear the full length release.
back over to The Other Tent for Vieux Farka Toure, who was excellent. When the term Afropop is used, it usually means lilting, light guitar lines, but Vieux definitely upped the rock/funk quotient for sure, as an appreciative crowd danced the afternoon away.
Walking back over to That Tent for St. Vincent, the Silent Disco was jumping with chants of "celebrate good times, come on!" It's always one of the most popular tents at Bonnaroo - the DJ plays a mix that only the folks in the tent with headphones on can hear (there's no outside speaker system), while passersby look on in puzzled amusement...probably should've given this a try this year, and also never got around to taking swings in the backstage batting cage, dang. St. Vincent was good though, proving that even with such a beautiful, pure voice, she can also rock when she wants to.
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals tied the previous day's rainstorm into larger biblical themes by encouraging her crowd to "let it rain" on an epic closing number at This Tent. Grace's new bandmates (she's added a new bass player and 2 guitarists since the UVA Springfest show where she opened for Sara Bareilles earlier this year) sounded great.
It was unfortunately hard to avoid Animal Collective's Which Stage set on the way to our first visit to the largest What Stage for Galactic. I swear we heard NO applause after one of Animal Collective's songs. And believe me, it was a HUGE crowd watching them. And then I thought about how this kind of response is so rare from a usually very appreciative Bonnaroo audience. I felt kind of bad for them because, like the All Points West festival last year in NJ, they were stuck in the hot mid-afternoon sun. Maybe it was just too hot for people to clap (overall, the crowds did seem slightly more subdued this year). Seemed like their style of music and light show would've been better served during a late night spot. But then I remembered their drummer's name is Panda Bear, so I no longer felt so bad for them. Oof. And what's up with (what's the French word for hot?) Phoenix only getting 45 minutes at 1130pm? I'm just noticing that in the schedule here on the drive back home...No wonder we missed them. That's one of my favorite things about Bonnaroo - the set times are usually long enough that you have time to get to a variety of things, and if you want to stay and enjoy one artist, you feel like you've gotten their typical full show, and maybe even their best show, thanks to the surroundings, and not a shortened, "festival set." Heard from a couple folks that Phoenix was good, although I wasn't very impressed by the 3 songs they did on SNL a while back. Let's see next year at this time between Phoenix and Animal Collective who turns into Arcade Fire and who turns into Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
ok, gotta get some sleep on the ride home...will write more later, promise!
oh, and i'm including the following notes for myself in case I forget to mention in future posts...
Brett Dennen was good Sunday afternoon
My theory of "camping breeds hardy festival goers," which makes Bonnaroo better than the rest
would've liked to have seen some of the Comedy Tent stuff, but tickets were required and you had to be in line 20 minutes before the performance, so it seemed like too many hoops to go though with so much great music going on.
Tift Merritt started off the day in the lightly attended and very muddy This Tent. Nice to hear her rocking out a bit with the full band after her recent solo acoustic show at Music Resource Center in Charlottesville.
saw a few Gomez songs from the bleachers at the Which Stage. cool cover of Zeppelin's "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp"...they seemed to gear their setlist to their early set time, which meant slower, more meandering jammy stuff...maybe that was just the part of the show we saw.
wandered up to the "Africa Calling"-themed The Other Tent for Toubab Krewe, who added a touch of surf guitar to their eclectic, West African instrumental mix.
caught a little of Kaki King's set at This Tent. Quite a few more folks had gathered over there by this time, which was good to see for one of the best, most unique guitar players around today. And Bonnaroo is certainly a case in point - there are plenty of noodley guitar dudes; the world can certainly use more women who can absolutey shred too, right?
Over to the first-ever artist curated stage with Dirty Projectors playing to a very large crowd at That Tent. You can see why David Byrne loves them so much, and apparently he made a guest appearance later in their set, which we missed after tiring of too much of the lead singer's voice and not enough of his excellent female vocalist bandmates. Definitely a promising band, though, as heard on Brighten The Corners...still waiting to hear the full length release.
back over to The Other Tent for Vieux Farka Toure, who was excellent. When the term Afropop is used, it usually means lilting, light guitar lines, but Vieux definitely upped the rock/funk quotient for sure, as an appreciative crowd danced the afternoon away.
Walking back over to That Tent for St. Vincent, the Silent Disco was jumping with chants of "celebrate good times, come on!" It's always one of the most popular tents at Bonnaroo - the DJ plays a mix that only the folks in the tent with headphones on can hear (there's no outside speaker system), while passersby look on in puzzled amusement...probably should've given this a try this year, and also never got around to taking swings in the backstage batting cage, dang. St. Vincent was good though, proving that even with such a beautiful, pure voice, she can also rock when she wants to.
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals tied the previous day's rainstorm into larger biblical themes by encouraging her crowd to "let it rain" on an epic closing number at This Tent. Grace's new bandmates (she's added a new bass player and 2 guitarists since the UVA Springfest show where she opened for Sara Bareilles earlier this year) sounded great.
It was unfortunately hard to avoid Animal Collective's Which Stage set on the way to our first visit to the largest What Stage for Galactic. I swear we heard NO applause after one of Animal Collective's songs. And believe me, it was a HUGE crowd watching them. And then I thought about how this kind of response is so rare from a usually very appreciative Bonnaroo audience. I felt kind of bad for them because, like the All Points West festival last year in NJ, they were stuck in the hot mid-afternoon sun. Maybe it was just too hot for people to clap (overall, the crowds did seem slightly more subdued this year). Seemed like their style of music and light show would've been better served during a late night spot. But then I remembered their drummer's name is Panda Bear, so I no longer felt so bad for them. Oof. And what's up with (what's the French word for hot?) Phoenix only getting 45 minutes at 1130pm? I'm just noticing that in the schedule here on the drive back home...No wonder we missed them. That's one of my favorite things about Bonnaroo - the set times are usually long enough that you have time to get to a variety of things, and if you want to stay and enjoy one artist, you feel like you've gotten their typical full show, and maybe even their best show, thanks to the surroundings, and not a shortened, "festival set." Heard from a couple folks that Phoenix was good, although I wasn't very impressed by the 3 songs they did on SNL a while back. Let's see next year at this time between Phoenix and Animal Collective who turns into Arcade Fire and who turns into Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
ok, gotta get some sleep on the ride home...will write more later, promise!
oh, and i'm including the following notes for myself in case I forget to mention in future posts...
Brett Dennen was good Sunday afternoon
My theory of "camping breeds hardy festival goers," which makes Bonnaroo better than the rest
would've liked to have seen some of the Comedy Tent stuff, but tickets were required and you had to be in line 20 minutes before the performance, so it seemed like too many hoops to go though with so much great music going on.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Bonnaroo Blog '09-4th entry
well, back in the tent closing in on 130am, trying to put yet another stellar Bonnaroo in perspective....
Phish ended about an hour ago, and Elizabeth and I miraculously ended up on the upper sidestage to witness our 1st full Phish concert! As stated in a previous entry, we only caught the first couple songs on Friday night...and if there's one Phish show to catch, I'd imagine it'd be this one - Springsteen guest stars for 3 songs in the middle, a Velvet Underground "Rock and Roll" cover, and oh yeah, there were 75,000 fans going bonkers the whole time...quite a site to witness from any perspective, let along high atop the side of the stage. Oh right, and the setting wasn't any old basketball arena or shed, it was at Bonnaroo! Ok, truth be told, we did ditch out for a bathroom break and a massive slice of pizza around the time they played what's probably my favorite Phish song, "Character Zero," but even that was lucky as we heard the "true" sound mix for most of the song and not the muted, you're-standing-behind-the-speakers mix from sidestage. We were way overdue for dinner as no food was provided backstage, we had to fend for ourselves and time got away from us! And we knew, Phish being Phish, we were gonna be in for an epic night...
Earlier highlights today included-
the fun I had broadcasting from noon-3pm eastern from the radio compound and playing back some of this year's backstage performances from the likes of Alejandro Escovedo, Ani DiFranco, Wilco, The Features, Zee Avi and Andrew Bird (just to name a few). Thanks to Elizabeth and Starr Hill's Mark for joining me on-air, to Brad & Melissa for taking over from 3-4pm, and to Bob back at the studio in VA for getting us on the air from TN!
Elizabeth captured some great video for the Corner Crew of Sons of Bill and Cage the Elephant's raucous (sorry, i know i keep using it, but i love that word!) early day sets. I was on the air and Brad & Melissa's late-morning escort to the off-site showers took longer than expected..."disc jockeys" and "roughing it" aren't phrases that go together very well...lol
Ted Leo was awesome solo at the Sonic Stage. Played a new song and even did a cover of Nick Lowe's "So It Goes!"
Dear & The Headlights delivered a strong set of heartfelt, indie-soul at the Troo Music Lounge. I knew little or nothing about them before I saw 'em...
Strolled over to see Merle Haggard just in time to catch "If You Got the Money, Honey I Got The Time." Classic.
thanks to our Music Allies pal Nick, we got into the pit for about half of Snoop Dogg's set...getting to see him at all was pretty sweet after missing out on a chance to see him during my Missouri days, let alone from that close-up! Sometimes it's not about being backstage at Bonnaroo, it's about tagging along with the right folks at the right time backstage.
also thanks to Nick, caught the last couple of Band of Horses songs from sidestage as well...amazing backdrop with the sun setting off in the distance (for their song "The Funeral" especially). It was around this time I finally introduced myself to a couple of radio legends, Marty and Norm from WXRT in Chicago.
Here's a good summary of tonight, and the festival in general (via yahoo via Associated Press) with most of the highlights put much more succinctly than I could and without my bias...but then that's what makes blogs fun, now doesn't it?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090615/ap_on_en_mu/us_music_bonnaroo_wrap
ok, time for bed...730am will be here way too soon! don't really want to leave that early, but allowing for traffic and stops along the way, we'll definitely need some good rest before heading back to work on Tuesday! fuller updates on previous days will appear soon...check back!
Phish ended about an hour ago, and Elizabeth and I miraculously ended up on the upper sidestage to witness our 1st full Phish concert! As stated in a previous entry, we only caught the first couple songs on Friday night...and if there's one Phish show to catch, I'd imagine it'd be this one - Springsteen guest stars for 3 songs in the middle, a Velvet Underground "Rock and Roll" cover, and oh yeah, there were 75,000 fans going bonkers the whole time...quite a site to witness from any perspective, let along high atop the side of the stage. Oh right, and the setting wasn't any old basketball arena or shed, it was at Bonnaroo! Ok, truth be told, we did ditch out for a bathroom break and a massive slice of pizza around the time they played what's probably my favorite Phish song, "Character Zero," but even that was lucky as we heard the "true" sound mix for most of the song and not the muted, you're-standing-behind-the-speakers mix from sidestage. We were way overdue for dinner as no food was provided backstage, we had to fend for ourselves and time got away from us! And we knew, Phish being Phish, we were gonna be in for an epic night...
Earlier highlights today included-
the fun I had broadcasting from noon-3pm eastern from the radio compound and playing back some of this year's backstage performances from the likes of Alejandro Escovedo, Ani DiFranco, Wilco, The Features, Zee Avi and Andrew Bird (just to name a few). Thanks to Elizabeth and Starr Hill's Mark for joining me on-air, to Brad & Melissa for taking over from 3-4pm, and to Bob back at the studio in VA for getting us on the air from TN!
Elizabeth captured some great video for the Corner Crew of Sons of Bill and Cage the Elephant's raucous (sorry, i know i keep using it, but i love that word!) early day sets. I was on the air and Brad & Melissa's late-morning escort to the off-site showers took longer than expected..."disc jockeys" and "roughing it" aren't phrases that go together very well...lol
Ted Leo was awesome solo at the Sonic Stage. Played a new song and even did a cover of Nick Lowe's "So It Goes!"
Dear & The Headlights delivered a strong set of heartfelt, indie-soul at the Troo Music Lounge. I knew little or nothing about them before I saw 'em...
Strolled over to see Merle Haggard just in time to catch "If You Got the Money, Honey I Got The Time." Classic.
thanks to our Music Allies pal Nick, we got into the pit for about half of Snoop Dogg's set...getting to see him at all was pretty sweet after missing out on a chance to see him during my Missouri days, let alone from that close-up! Sometimes it's not about being backstage at Bonnaroo, it's about tagging along with the right folks at the right time backstage.
also thanks to Nick, caught the last couple of Band of Horses songs from sidestage as well...amazing backdrop with the sun setting off in the distance (for their song "The Funeral" especially). It was around this time I finally introduced myself to a couple of radio legends, Marty and Norm from WXRT in Chicago.
Here's a good summary of tonight, and the festival in general (via yahoo via Associated Press) with most of the highlights put much more succinctly than I could and without my bias...but then that's what makes blogs fun, now doesn't it?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090615/ap_on_en_mu/us_music_bonnaroo_wrap
ok, time for bed...730am will be here way too soon! don't really want to leave that early, but allowing for traffic and stops along the way, we'll definitely need some good rest before heading back to work on Tuesday! fuller updates on previous days will appear soon...check back!
Bonnaroo Blog '09-3rd entry
ok, another quick update here before going on the air again...what a night!
In the Top 10 of things I never thought I'd see in my life but have in the last month
Leonard Cohen at Radio City Music Hall, NYC
"Burning Down the House" performed by a band including David Byrne at Charlottesville Pavillion
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performing "Santa Claus is Coming To Town" at Bonnaroo!
it was a request, complete with a life-size Santa sign...3 hours worth of Bruce was hard to top for the best of day 3...
Jenny Lewis (and her band) backing Elvis Costello on "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love & Understanding" was pretty awesome (he came out during her set too)
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (he's here for The Tonight Show and the Comedy Tent) joined in a mostly hilarious, slightly awkward mid-afternoon press conference with Tift Merritt, Alejandro Escovedo, and Elvis Perkins
Rodrigo Y Gabriela are mind-blowingly fast guitar players
1am crowds for Nine Inch Nails, Ben Harper & Relentless 7 and MGMT were massive...there's no sleeping at Bonnaroo (well, until 3 or 4am anyway)!
and it's been nice to have 2 dry days in a row, although it's still a muddy, muggy mass of humanity here in Tennessee!
ok, more later...check out the pics page too! thanks for listening and reading and looking!
In the Top 10 of things I never thought I'd see in my life but have in the last month
Leonard Cohen at Radio City Music Hall, NYC
"Burning Down the House" performed by a band including David Byrne at Charlottesville Pavillion
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performing "Santa Claus is Coming To Town" at Bonnaroo!
it was a request, complete with a life-size Santa sign...3 hours worth of Bruce was hard to top for the best of day 3...
Jenny Lewis (and her band) backing Elvis Costello on "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love & Understanding" was pretty awesome (he came out during her set too)
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (he's here for The Tonight Show and the Comedy Tent) joined in a mostly hilarious, slightly awkward mid-afternoon press conference with Tift Merritt, Alejandro Escovedo, and Elvis Perkins
Rodrigo Y Gabriela are mind-blowingly fast guitar players
1am crowds for Nine Inch Nails, Ben Harper & Relentless 7 and MGMT were massive...there's no sleeping at Bonnaroo (well, until 3 or 4am anyway)!
and it's been nice to have 2 dry days in a row, although it's still a muddy, muggy mass of humanity here in Tennessee!
ok, more later...check out the pics page too! thanks for listening and reading and looking!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Bonnaroo Blog '09-2nd entry
2009! Another summer...sound of the funky drummer! OK, so Public Enemy modified the first line of "Fight the Power" last night, but all day I kept thinking about how this year's lineup could very well have been awesome in 1989 as well....Beastie Boys, NIN, Springsteen, David Byrne, Phish, Al Green & Public Enemy! Pretty impressive that all the above are still sounding great so many years later...
bopped around quite a bit for day 2...I'll write more later when we get back, but you can judge from the photos how busy we were trekking from stage to stage. Going with the strategy this year of seeing a little bit by a lot of folks, and definite highlights happened at The Other Tent, with Toubab Krewe, Vieux Farka Toure, Amadou & Mariam, and Femi Kuti & The Positive Force keeping people moving day and night.
bopped around quite a bit for day 2...I'll write more later when we get back, but you can judge from the photos how busy we were trekking from stage to stage. Going with the strategy this year of seeing a little bit by a lot of folks, and definite highlights happened at The Other Tent, with Toubab Krewe, Vieux Farka Toure, Amadou & Mariam, and Femi Kuti & The Positive Force keeping people moving day and night.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Bonnaroo Blog '09-1st entry
Well, here we are again, coming to you from backstage at a very rain-soaked, muddy Bonnaroo! Easily more rain than the other 3 Bonnaroos I've been to combined last night, including a brief tornado warning. We thought we made it through the worst during my half of the drive down, where the road was barely visible for a bit. But the skies opened up again as we assembled the tent in the guest camping area (around 9pm), and we luckily ended up hearing about the tornado warning while we were in the media area, so we waited it out on one of the tour buses provided for those in the media close to the Radio Bonnaroo compound.
Was hoping we could have made it in time to see White Rabbits at 645, or Murs at 715, but no such luck once we got a little bit later start than intended and factoring in a couple stops for lunch and dinner. And with another batch of storms that blew through an hour or so after the initial Tornado Warning (we saw these coming thanks to the Weather Channel on the tour bus), we ended up deciding to stay (sort of) dry and pace ourselves and spent the late evening catching up with some pals from other official Bonnaroo radio stations around the country and record label folks and such. And once the rain let up (a bit), it was back to the tent for a few hours of shut-eye before broadcasting from the radio compound in the morning.
So, no, we didn't see Chairlift or Passion Pit, and it sounded like Delta Spirit ended up playing a few hours later than scheduled after arriving late. And it sure sounded like some kind of techno beat started around 2am fairly close to our campsite, which was interesting since the official schedule had the music ending by 2am on this 1st night. I jokingly speculated we were probably missing a surprise set by the Beastie Boys with Nine Inch Nails, but alas haven't heard anyone buzzing about such a surprise in the radio compound this morning. I have definitely changed from the flip-flops to the rain boots for the rest of the weekend, though, as more storms are predicted for today...
Today's lineup is pretty crazy. There's so much good stuff going on at all times, I'm not sure I'll be able to see a full set from anyone. Instead I'm going with the strategy of seeing as much as I can (mud and weather conditions permitting, of course). Let's see...David Byrne's curated stage (the 1st artist-chosen lineup in 'Roo history) begins at noon, with Katzenjammer, followed by Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent, Santigold and Ani DiFranco. Later in the evening on that same That Tent stage, Phoenix and Girl Talk will do their thing...Gomez and Tift Merritt should be early afternoon highlights, with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grizzly Bear and Santigold all playing at around the same time in the late afternoon. Then it's Al Green, TV on the Radio, Lucinda Williams and Ani all on different stages at roughly the same time in the early evening. Beastie Boys and David Byrne set times overlap on the 2 biggest stages, and then Phish is the big headliner on the What Stage from 11pm-2am. Public Enemy goes on at This Tent at 1230am, and we'll try to mud-dance from Paul Oakenfold over to Girl Talk between 215 and 4am (might have to get a nap in at some point today to make it that long!)
Listen for a few reports from me on the air this afternoon, and we're hopeful of having some interview and performance clips to play for you this weekend, live and direct from backstage at Bonnaroo '09!
p.s., just said hey to James and Sam from Charlottesville's own Sons of Bill as they wandered through the radio compound. Looking forward to seeing their noon set on Sunday at the Troo Music Lounge, one of several upgraded "side stages" that definitely add an intimate feel to what already is a great, gigantic weekend of live music here in rural Tennessee!
Cheers!
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